Thomas McCarthy is amongst our most respected poets and writers. He has always written profound words of encouragement either in response to my poetry or to my many questions. I was thrilled to read his thoughts on Of Ochre and Ash.

'OF OCHRE AND ASH by Eleanor Hooker, a beautiful collection of poems at every level: stylistic, verbal, technical, personal, emotional, topographical, historical, social. Just wonderful poems like 'Through the Ears of a Fish' --'she turns/ her listening hear to my mouth,/ and I call to the tides tugging the sea.' And with Eleanor it is not the ordinary sea but that great inland sea of the Shannon basin, her Galilee where she guards the waters, the hazel sea, a place of hazel and clouds of starlings. And legions of bees, witches, X-ray plates, her poetry advancing like the evidence of change in a clinical scan. the beautiful formality of a serious poet, a home in poetry nestled in a very particular isolation. This Dedalus book is a real beauty.' Read More